How to get JTextArea to show input as it is being added?

Hi, Want I want to do is have a JTextArea display strings as it is being added - sort of like showing progress. The code snippet I have below just (visually)dumps the contents into the text area when the loop is completed. What I want is the JTextArea to visually add the strings line by line as it is looping - so a user know that something is going on rather than a big long wait then a dump. Of course, setText() vs. append() doesn't work either as that doesn't concatentate. Validates or repaints don't seem to help. I am missing something. I can use another widget if it provides the desired affect.JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(); for(int i = 0; i <= 10000; i++) { textArea.append("blah blah blah blah...\n"); textArea.validate(); scrollPane.validate(); }